UT Professor Joins National Energy Workforce Board
A University of Tennessee, Knoxville, professor is bringing her knowledge of energy policy and workforce development to a federal advisory board recommending how to prepare for skilled labor needs in the energy field.
Assistant Professor Nikki Luke began a two-year appointment to the 21st Century Energy Workforce Advisory Board (EWAB) in February 2025 and attended her first public meeting of the board in July. The EWAB is updating a 2024 report it issued to then-Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who appointed Luke to the board in January.
Luke joined the faculty of UT’s Department of Geography and Sustainability in 2020 and became an affiliate scholar of the university’s Center for Energy, Transportation, and Environmental Policy in 2022.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) recruited her in 2023 to serve as an energy workforce advisor for its Office of Energy Jobs, because of her research on ensuring existing workers aren’t left behind when energy policy shifts. The US Department of Energy (DOE) recruited her in 2023 to serve as an energy workforce advisor for its Office of Energy Jobs, because of her research on ensuring existing workers aren’t left behind when energy policy shifts, known as “just transition.”
National Issues, Local Impact
“The energy sector is facing a lot of uncertainty due to changing policy, new demand for electricity driven by AI, and supply chain constraints to build new generation capacity. At the same time, workers are aging out of the energy workforce and households are struggling to manage the costs of energy,” Luke said. “These challenges also hit especially close to home: 30% of households in the South reported some form of energy insecurity in 2020,” such as difficulty paying their energy bills or keeping homes at unsafe temperatures.
Luke said her goal on the advisory board is “to uphold best practices that advance high-quality jobs and remove barriers to employment, such as access to childcare and transportation.”
“These strategies are key to creating pathways into energy industries for discouraged and displaced workers, and workers with barriers to economic advancement,” she said.
From August 2023 to January 2025 Luke was on leave from UT while serving in the Office of Energy Jobs, where she implemented policies related to just transition for the agency, working to promote good jobs on clean energy projects incentivized by DOE and to advance commitments to worker’s rights on the job globally in international climate negotiations. In addition, Luke supported a research team led by the National Renewable Energy Lab to model projected changes in energy employment as a result of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Science and Technology Act, and other factors impacting the energy sector, such as data center demand.
Luke has worked on research related to “just transition” for workers since 2015. “The concept originated in the labor movement to argue that workers should not bear the costs of socially necessary environmental policy,” she explained. “Over decades, workers have organized through unions to elevate just transition in domestic and international policy, to ensure that workers are at the table in discussions about energy policy and participate in decision-making; that jobs created in new energy industries are good jobs that pay family-supporting wages and benefits, promote safety, and offer opportunities for career advancement; and dislocated workers and workers with barriers to economic advancement have pathways into new industries.”
Jobs, Environment, and Economics
Beginning as a high school student in Blacksburg, Virginia, Luke was involved in the youth climate movement and recognized how changing policy could affect jobs at the local coal plant if no strategy was in place for their transition. While earning bachelor’s degrees in economics and environmental studies in Pittsburgh she worked with labor unions and decided to focus her work on just transition, understanding that winning political support for environmental and climate action requires addressing intertwined economic issues such as protecting jobs and ensuring everyone has access to reliable and affordable utilities.
After earning a Master of Science degree in environmental governance, she became a policy analyst working on labor and environmental policy across the US before earning her doctorate in geography.
“Geography allowed me to combine my interests to study what makes different communities unique and how these factors shape political possibilities for building a just transition,” Luke said. “Today, I do mostly qualitative research based on archival, ethnographic, and interview methods.”
UT students have opportunities to gain research experience alongside her while working on topics directly impacting lives in the Volunteer state. In one project focused on energy issues in the South, she worked with undergraduate students to examine utility disconnection policies and rates in Tennessee. A graduate student assisted by coding interviews with households that reported struggling to afford their utilities each month in Knoxville as well as Campbell and Claiborne counties.
By Amy Beth Miller